‘HTGAWM’ Recap: Laurel’s Father Lowkey Kidnaps Her Baby

Laurels father plans to use her baby as collateral.

How to Get Away With Murder is back! Annalise saved Laurel’s baby, but now the real work begins because Laurel’s father is about to show up and show out. The baby is in the NICU. Connor Calls Annalise in a panic and tells her what happened with Simon. Annalise tells him what happened with Laurel and the baby, then we cut to the hospital.

Annalise and Frank aren’t allowed to know what’s happening at first because they’re not relatives, but then Frank tells authorities, presumably child services, that he’s the baby’s father so they give him a little more info, but they don’t fully buy it because they say Frank’s name isn’t listed on any of the paperwork they have. We do find out that the baby is stabilized, but authorities are questioning Frank and Annalise about Laurel’s drug habits and say they found drugs in Laurel’s system, which induced labor. Annalise calls BS and mentions that people go into preterm labor all the time and wonders where they’re getting this information from. Then Annalise is distracted by the sight of Laurel’s father coming into the NICU and it all starts to make sense.

They find out Mr. Castillo has been granted custody of the baby and deduce that he is responsible for falsifying documents. They also find out that a DNA test was done and Frank is not the father. They also find out that there’s documentation that states that Laurel has a history of bipolar disorder and she’s not fit to be a mother. Annalise knows this is bull so she works her magic by pretending to be Mr. Castillo’s attorney and gets the investigators to allow Frank to see Laurel since they are a couple, and to give her the paperwork filed by Mr. Castillo.

If you recall, Asher is in prison and Annalise sent Nate to go see him. Then we see a montage of Michaela and Oliver respectively telling police their version of events of how Simon shot himself. They’re making Simon look like the guilty party like they caught him stealing something and that he was paranoid and would rather shoot himself than be exposed. However, they don’t know that Simon is possibly still alive because we last saw him being worked on at the hospital.

Now Isaac is at the hospital just trying to check on Annalise, but of course, she ropes him into this. She explains the fishy paperwork and urges him to go to Laurel’s room and do a psych evaluation. He wants to do the right thing by not doing this because he doesn’t have credentials at the hospital. Then Annalise plays hardball. She threatens to report him and his wife for misconduct (you know, the whole thing where Isaac’s wife visited her to tell her that she was triggering him is unethical).

Then Tegan confronts Michaela and wants to know the real story because <em>her</em> job is on the line for this potential security breach. Michaela gives her story again and says Simon stole the keycard, but Tegan is a g, and she’s smart enough to know that Michaela is an entire lie and tells her that she’s not a good a liar as she thinks.

Now we’re at the part where Laurel wakes up and freaks out about her baby. Frank and Isaac fill her in on what’s happening. While Annalise tries to get the hospital to do another drug test on with supervision because she knows that [Mr. Castillo is prone to paying people off, but it’s too late. The baby is already being transferred to another hospital. He paid for a top neonatal specialist in the country. Annalise catches Mr. Castillo as he’s leaving and begs him not to take the baby because it will ruin Laurel. Mr. Castillo is cold and calculated, pretends that he’s doing this for his grandson and proceeds to leave.

Annalise begins screaming, “He’s going to hurt this baby!” Authorities hold her back and she tells them they’re going to have blood on their hands.

Isaac runs into Michaela, who is distraught because she thinks the baby is dead. Isaac consoles her and suggests she get some medication to take the edge off her anxiety since she’s traumatized. This prompts Michaela to realize the test drug results for Laurel are fake because Laurel went off her antidepressants for the sake of her baby.

Now we see Bonnie arriving at the scene of the crime. She gets Oliver alone and demands to know where the hard drive is. He says Laurel has it and that she’s waiting for them at Wes’ apartment. He obviously the last to know what happened.

Back to Laurel. Annalise and Frank are with her in her room. She’s still distraught, but she reveals that Dominic (her dad’s goon) called her the night before all this happened and said her father knows that she’s pregnant. She said she didn’t care, but then Dominic asks her to think about what else her father could know. You know what that was code for. Her dad knows that Laurel was trying to set him up and he won’t go down without a fight. In other words, that baby is collateral for them to keep their mouths shut.

Then we cut to Dominic at the law firm talking to Tegan. She’s trying to cover herself and assures him that everything is fine and that no files were stolen but then he tells her that she’ll have to deal with Mr. Castillo himself if she doesn’t give up the name he needs. That name would be Oliver Hampton. Dominic needs to question him about what he stole or at least what he knows.

Bonnie manages to get Laurel’s bag, which police were holding in evidence, but the drive isn’t in there. Meanwhile, Annalise is just looking at Bonnie’s shady arse like…

Later on, Bonnie also gets Asher out of jail. But this isn’t over, the DA wants to charge him. The only thing that stopped them for now is that Bonnie threw a wrench in that plan because she revealed she’s Asher’s ex-girlfriend and now attorney (which is obviously an ethics issue). Then Asher drops the bomb on all of them that Simon is still alive. He’s brain dead, but if he pulls through he can mess up their story.

Annalise goes to see Laurel again and shows her a picture of her baby in the NICU.

Then, we see Dominic on the phone giving someone the specs on Oliver Hampton, but Frank comes out of the shadows and knocks him out. Then Frank tortures him and wants to know where the hard drive is. Dominic plays dumb and claims he didn’t even know there was a hard drive until Frank mentioned it. You know how this ends though, right?

Hold that thought because now we’re back at the hospital where Laurel is explaining why she wants to call Dominic. She says that they grew up together and the fact that he called her to tell her her father knows is proof he wants to do the right thing. Frank tells her not to call Dominic because he’s not going to answer, but Laurel is hard headed and calls anyway, swearing this is the right thing to do, only to hear Dominic’s phone ringing in Frank’s pocket. In other words, we’ll see Dominic at the crossroads (he’s dead). Laurel puts two and two together and tells Frank he’s the dumbest man alive.

Now we’re at the hospital where Simon is on another day. Oliver tells Asher, Connor and Michaela that they won’t let him upstairs. Asher, Connor and Michaela plot to go upstairs to see what his condition is (because they highkey hope that he dies), but Oliver tells them to promise they won’t touch him because he knows they cannot be trusted. Then Annalise shows up and tells them they never learn.

You know she’s going to help them, most likely to her detriment, once again.

The episode winds down with Frank showing up explaining that he went through Dominic’s phone and happened to find a message from Wes (but on the message he gives his birth name, Christophe) left him saying that he was in trouble and to call him.

Now Annalise and Frank know that Laurel’s claims about her father killing Wes are valid.